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ICICI Lombard shares gain traction in grey market as IPO nears:

ICICI Bank’s nod to the initial public offering (IPO) of its general insurance subsidiary, ICICI Lombard, has given a boost to the latter’s share prices in the grey market. According to sources, Lombard’s share price has surged to Rs 550 per share, from Rs 450 a week ago. Notably, Fairfax’s recent 12 per cent stake sale in Lombard has bumped up its valuation to Rs 20,300 crore. In 2015, Lombard was valued at Rs 17,200 crore, based on Fairfax’s purchase of a nine per cent stake in the company. Ashley Coutinho More AMCs plan to go public Last …

CDSL IPO offers growth at a reasonable price:

High operating profit margins, stable revenue streams along with the addition of new growth avenues strengthen the prospects of India’s second largest depository – Central Depository Services (CDSL). Promoted by BSE, the company is looking to raise up to Rs 524 crore through its initial public offering (IPO) slated to open for subscription on June 19. The depository, which holds securities in an electronic form, operates in an industry with high entry barriers and has limited capex requirements going forward. Large part of its costs are towards technology upgradations and …

Aiming to widen its market presence, Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSE) will launch its corporate bond platform in July and is also planning to bring in a slew of products in equities and derivatives segment later in the current financial year.

With the launch of new products MSE is targeting to increase its market share to 15-20% in non-equity segments and by nearly 5% in equities. The market is largely dominated by the two other national bourses — the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE.

“The corporate bond segment will be launched in July. MSE is launching electronic book building platform for bond raising on the exchange platform, subsequent listing and trading in these securities,” MSE COO (strategy & development) Abhijit Chakraborty told PTI.

“The e-booking software has additional features of live viewing of quotes and facility to modify bids,” he added.

ICICI Lombard gets ICICI Bank board approval for IPO:

The board of ICICI Bank has approved the stake sale in its general insurance venture ICICI Lombard General Insurance through an initial public offering (IPO). The bank’s life insurance venture ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is the first and only listed insurance entity in India.

“The size and other details of the offer would be determined in due course,” it said. ICICI Lombard is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Fairfax Financial Holdings.

However, sources said that the bank may pare down 8-10 percent for the stake sale. The bankers for the deal have almost been shortlisted and the timeline would also be decided in the next few months.

In a statement to the exchanges, the Bank said that their board on Monday approved the sale of a part of its shareholding in ICICI Lombard in an initial public offering by the company, subject to requisite approvals and market conditions.

Securities depository in India, Central Depository Services (India) Limited is planning to come up with initial public offering. After grand listing of BSE Limited with a premium of 35%, investors are bracing for CDSL IPO. The objectives of the IPO are to achieve the benefits of listing and to enhance its visibility and brand image and provide liquidity to its existing shareholders.

The tentative date for the IPO is out. The IPO issue is likely to open on June 19 and closing on June 21, 2017. It is likely to follow book building process wherein price band is fixed at Rs 113 to Rs 115 per equity share. The minimum order quantity is one market lot which constitutes 130 shares.

The secondary market values general insurer ICICI Lombard 30 per cent higher than the Warburg Pincus deal which valued the insurer at Rs 20,000 crore. The general insurer, planning to be the first to be listed, is fetching a premium because those with Esops are selling shares at Rs 550-570 apiece valuing the insurer at Rs 26,000 crore in the secondary market, said sources in know of the situation.

On Saturday, ICICI Lombard General Insurance said its foreign partner, Canada-based Fairfax, has offloaded part stake of 12.18 per cent to a clutch of investors, including Warburg Pincus, for Rs 2,473 crore. Experts expect heightened off-market activity post the deal.

ICICI Lombard may be first private general insurer to go public this year:

ICICI Lombard, the largest private general insurer in the country, has begun groundwork for its initial public offering (IPO), in what may well be the first public offering by a private general insurer.

The insurer has begun preliminary discussions with investment bankers and is aiming to hit the market in the second half of this financial year, said two people familiar with the matter. The issue is expected to be anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,500 crore.

ICICI Lombard is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings. The IPO will help shareholders to monetise their holdings and help Fairfax, which currently holds 35 per cent in the joint venture, to divest its stake.

The acquisition helps Tata Technologies accelerate its plans to expand in Europe due to the rapid growth opportunity the region offers in both the automotive and industrial machinery sectors. Europe’s automotive industry is the world’s leading producer of motor vehicles by volume and is also the largest private investor in R&D in Europe.

Following the acquisition, Escenda Engineering will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Technologies Europe Limited. The company will maintain the same management team and full workforce under the new ownership.

HDFC Life inks distribution tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank:

HDFC Life today said it has entered into a bancassurance tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank to distribute its individual life insurance products to the private lender’s customers.

With this partnership, HDFC Life will offer its leading range of individual life insurance, health and pension products to the Catholic Syrian Bank’s 1.5 million customer base across all its branches over a period of time, a release said.

“We are proud to announce our partnership with Catholic Syrian Bank, our first bank partnership in Kerala. In keeping with our endeavour to increase our reach and access customers across geographies, this partnership would enable us to offer our products to over 1.5 million customers of Catholic Syrian Bank across Kerala and other states,” said HDFC Life Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry.

MSEI to launch new interest rate futures contracts tomorrow:

Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd (MSEI) will introduce tomorrow new 10-year interest rate futures (IRF) contracts offering 6.79 per cent yield on central government bonds. The contracts would mature in 2027 and are available to entities like banks, primary dealers, mutual funds, insurers, FIIs, corporates and retail investors, for trading on the exchange’s platform, MSEI said in a statement today.

“The stock exchange will launch the new IRF contracts on May 16,” MSEI said. Other national bourses, BSE and NSE would also be launching similar contracts tomorrow.

HDFC Life inks distribution tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank:

HDFC Life today said it has entered into a bancassurance tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank to distribute its individual life insurance products to the private lender’s customers.

With this partnership, HDFC Life will offer its leading range of individual life insurance, health and pension products to the Catholic Syrian Bank’s 1.5 million customer base across all its branches over a period of time, a release said.

“We are proud to announce our partnership with Catholic Syrian Bank, our first bank partnership in Kerala. In keeping with our endeavour to increase our reach and access customers across geographies, this partnership would enable us to offer our products to over 1.5 million customers of Catholic Syrian Bank across Kerala and other states,” said HDFC Life Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry.

Dollar Industries gets listed on NSE:

Kolkata based hosiery company Dollar Industries Limited made its debut on the National Stock Exchange with effect from today, a company statement said.

The listing of the company, on one of the premier stock exchanges of the country, was expected to enhance the visibility of the company’s equity shares and also provide liquidity for its existing and prospective investors.

Vinod Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, Dollar, said “listing on one of the premier stock exchanges is a significant milestone for the company“.

The company has a market share of over 15 per cent in the branded knitwear market, the statement said.

Sebi asks stock exchanges to strengthen system audits:

Suspected irregularities in algorithmic trading at India’s largest bourse have prompted the markets regulator to order enhanced system audits at stock exchanges nationwide, two people aware of the development said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) move aims to prevent misuse of algorithmic trading and ensure that no broker gets an unfair access to trading systems.

“Sebi wants to ensure that incidents like the one happened at NSE are not repeated in future. Sebi has asked exchanges to increase the scope of audits and submit the reports to Sebi with their observations and recommended changes in the exchange’s technology, co-location facilities, broker network, broker profiles, trading pattern, volume/concentration analysis and so on,” said the first person.

Sebi also asked them to proactively adopt systems for additional safeguards to protect the market integrity and ensure that all investors are treated equitably, the first of the two persons said.

Housing finance companies scorch the charts on upgrade hopes:

Shares of top-rated housing finance companies (HFCs) hit a one-year high on Tuesday as investors bet on the gains to the sector from the government’s ambitious target of ensuring a home to every family by 2022.

“Outlook for HFCs is strong given the government’s push for the sector,“ said Karthik Srinivasan, group head for financial sector ratings at ICRA. “There is no material asset quality concern, while demonetisation has not impacted the HFCs adversely. Lower cost of funds help in supporting interest margins.“